The security and safety of students should be McClatchy’s number one priority, but unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like that’s always the case. CKM has gotten itself into many situations in the past that the student body feels could have been handled better.
Today, we live in a very dangerous world, and as we get older we realize that there are many people looking to hurt us. In the last 10 years, the recorded cases of gun violence in schools have effectively doubled.
That’s not the only issue. Previously, sexual assault in schools went largely unnoticed. Since 2017, when the #MeToo movement went viral on Twitter, schools haven’t been able to overlook harassment among their students like they used to. But even knowing all of this, McClatchy’s track record with handling these issues still isn’t totally in the clear.
Sexual harassment has been a recurring issue in CKM’s past, one of the most notorious instances being in 2016. A former McClatchy student came forward about her experience where she had been drugged and gang-raped at a party by her fellow classmates. When she approached the school about what had happened, rather than reporting it to the police, they suspended her for the duration of the semester and allowed her rapists to go on unpunished.
Similarly, in January of 2022, a walk-out was organized by students to protest CKM’s lack of awareness of the harassment taking place at their school. This was inspired by an Instagram account called “CKM Confessions” that shared anonymous statements from McClatchy students.
The Instagram account was later taken down by the school and the student behind it was suspended. After many posts mentioned cases of sexual harassment, students wanted to take action via a walk-out, which didn’t end up happening. The walkout was postponed after students held a meeting with Principal Egan wherein she promised to make teachers more aware of students that may be afflicted among other things. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like any obvious changes have been made.
The walkout was rescheduled for December 12, 2021, but came to a halt after CKM received a shooting threat. “I feel like this school doesn’t take into account security.” commented 12th grader Nataly Barreto.
According to EducationWeek, there have been 151 school shootings since 2018, 7 of which occurred just this year. As previously mentioned, in December of 2021, CKM faced a shooting threat of our own. An Instagram post was made by, presumably, a student, claiming they would bring a gun to school the next day. Students and families were only made aware of the threat during second period when the school went on a “soft lockdown”.
Students and their parents were reasonably scared and many were picked up from school early because of this. Being a student in America where gun use is largely unrestricted means that you’re constantly considering the possibility that your school might be next.
Students were reminded of last year’s incident when just a few weeks ago on Feb. 15, another threat against CKM and the district was made on social media. The email informing families was ambiguous when explaining the threat, leaving many worried about their safety.
The email sent out by Principal Egan states, “Overnight I was contacted by the Sacramento Police Department about a post on Facebook which indicated threats to ‘Sacramento schools’ and C.K. McClatchy High School. The Facebook account is nondescript and police are investigating the post at this time. School will remain open as this post is thoroughly investigated.”
That day at school, there seemed to be minimal security considering how severe something like that could become. This left a weird taste in students’ mouths. “What are we gonna do to protect all of the kids here today? McClatchy is a big school and anyone who already goes to our school can get in undetected. How can I help if one of my peers is hurt?” says 10th grader, Sophia Montoya.
The Facebook post was deemed not credible in a follow-up email later that day, the same as the Instagram post that had threatened to bring a gun to school in 2021. The email does not specify what “not credible” means or what brought them to that conclusion.
These only cover the major incidents, there are many more. The administration at McClatchy has made many promises about how they’ll change our school for the better, but it’s difficult to tell if there really has been any change. It’s unreasonable to expect everything to be made perfect, but at the very least, we should be able to feel safe at school.